Rutgers University On American Motherhood Discussion

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Theodore Roosevelt | “On American Motherhood,” 1905

On March 13, 1905, President Theodore Roosevelt gave the following speech to the National Congress of Mothers. In the speech he acknowledges that women and men are equal citizens, but he also states that women have a special duty to produce and raise children. He insists that this is not just a family issue but a matter of the preservation of the highest values of the race, by which he meant the white race. His view of women and their role in promoting the general welfare would be echoed in Muller v. Oregon.

There are certain old truths which will be true as long as this world endures, and which no amount of progress can alter. One of these is the truth that the primary duty of the husband is to be the home-maker, the breadwinner for his wife and children, and that the primary duty of the woman is to be the helpmate, the housewife, and mother. The woman should have ample educational advantages; but save in exceptional cases the man must be, and she need not be, and generally ought not to be, trained for a lifelong career as the family breadwinner; and, therefore, after a certain point, the training of the two must normally be different because the duties of the two are normally different. This does not mean inequality of function, but it does mean that normally there must be dissimilarity of function. On the whole, I think the duty of the woman the more important, the more difficult, and the more honorable of the two; on the whole I respect the woman who does her duty even more than I respect the man who does his.

No ordinary work done by a man is either as hard or as responsible as the work of a woman who is bringing up a family of small children; for upon her time and strength demands are made not only every hour of the day but often every hour of the night. She may have to get up night after night to take care of a sick child, and yet must by day continue to do all her household duties as well; and if the family means are scant she must usually enjoy even her rare holidays taking her whole brood of children with her. The birth pangs make all men the debtors of all women. Above all our sympathy and regard are due to the struggling wives among those whom Abraham Lincoln called the plain people, and whom he so loved and trusted; for the lives of these women are often led on the lonely heights of quiet, self-sacrificing heroism. . . .

[I]f the average family in which there are children contained but two children the nation as a whole would decrease in population so rapidly that in two or three generations it would very deservedly be on the point of extinction, so that the people who had acted on this base and selfish doctrine would be giving place to others with braver and more robust ideals. Nor would such a result be in any way regrettable; for a race that practised such doctrine — that is, a race that practised race suicide — would thereby conclusively show that it was unfit to exist, and that it had better give place to people who had not forgotten the primary laws of their being.

What is the author(s) agenda here? What bias/prejudice influences their perspective? What evidence from the documents/historical context makes you think so?

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On American Motherhood

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On American Motherhood
Authors Agenda
The author's main idea is to illustrate the importance of the roles of husband and wife, but
he also emphasizes the role of women as the most essential compared to that of men. The speech
by P...

CebssZbivar (12423)
Boston College

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